Teen conviction rules A-grade student out of medical school

Published on July 1st, 2008

An A-grade student from one of the poorest areas in the country has had an offer of a place on a prestigious medical course withdrawn after admissions officers ruled that a spent criminal conviction meant he could not be trusted to become a doctor.

Majid Ahmed, 18, from Little Horton in Bradford, lost an appeal against the decision by Imperial College London to bar him from its medicine degree, a move that youth justice charities labelled discriminatory and MPs called unfair.

Ahmed was convicted of burglary in 2005 and ordered to serve a four-month referral order for community service. His conviction is spent and he has moved schools, volunteered with disability charities and won four A grades at A-level.

Imperial offered him a place for study this academic year, an offer which was withdrawn after he wrote to tell the college of his conviction. The university said the decision had been made to uphold trust in the medical profession.

I hope you didn’t expect school administrators in Britain to be in touch with reality? The function has devolved into a beancounter specialty, grounded in devotion to bureacracy.

21 users responded in " Teen conviction rules A-grade student out of medical school "

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# 1 Jägermeister said, on July 1st, 2008 at 8:20 am

The university said the decision had been made to uphold trust in the medical profession.

So, killer doctors and nurses in the UK were screened through the same system? Okay, their crimes were after they finished their studies.

Slightly off topic… Check out this video. Your local reverend is your stay out of jail card if you live in Texas.

# 2 deowll said, on July 1st, 2008 at 8:31 am

What trust in the medical profession?

I’d give the kid a shot. Kids do dumb things. He seems to have gotten his act together better than most.

I’d dump the university board because they are mature adults who are still exercising impared judgement.

# 3 eteyemd said, on July 1st, 2008 at 8:39 am

Actions have consequenses. I’m sure they have strict policy that states if you have been convicted of a crime you can not receive this particular placement in the program. There are probably many other qualified applicants just as deserving who didn’t feel the need to commit a crime.

# 4 chuck said, on July 1st, 2008 at 9:17 am

Presumably there are limited spaces in the class. So the space was offered to someone equally qualified but without a criminal conviction.

# 5 jccalhoun graduate student said, on July 1st, 2008 at 9:24 am

Yes those plastic surgeons who specialize in totally elective surgery are really paragons of ethics aren’t they?

What is the law in the UK regarding crimes committed under the age of 18? If I’m reading this right the crime was committed when he was 15. In the USA aren’t crimes committed before the age of 18 able to be sealed and taken off their record?

It has been a long time since I applied for college. In the USA is there any requirement to disclose a criminal record?

# 6 Angel H. Wong said, on July 1st, 2008 at 9:37 am

Had this kid been a blonde haired, blue eyed twink named Stephen Hastings things would have been different.

# 7 Mark Derail said, on July 1st, 2008 at 9:42 am

#5 Ditto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouDRDzqTu0M

Angel, have you visited Pearl Harbor? Someone told me once Asians weren’t welcome, some such nonsense.

Or an Indian in full head dress visiting WTC in NY.

Any truth behind that?

# 8 pedro said, on July 1st, 2008 at 9:54 am

What about Gomez Addams?

# 9 Mister Ketchup said, on July 1st, 2008 at 2:19 pm

He could still become a Catholic priest.

# 10 bobbo said, on July 1st, 2008 at 2:27 pm

#7–Mark===reminds me of my visit to the USS Arizona. Contrary to what you wonder, a large Japanese tourist group arrived on the Memorial and respectfully listened to our Park Ranger give an account of the Famous Day. At the end, and old japanese guy turned to his neighbor and asked “How many of them did he say we killed?”

I went to the also world famous and no longer existing Monkey Bar and had a few beers over that one.

# 11 Angel H. Wong said, on July 1st, 2008 at 2:46 pm

I live in a LatinAmerican nation; unlike in the USA, here they can blatantly portray blacks as coconut climbing, semisimians; and let’s not forget the extra racist rice and/or mouse poison ads on the radio where they put some a-hole to do a mock chinese accent.

That’s every time I see on the news all those hispanics whining that they’re being discriminated in the USA I smirk.

# 12 MikeN said, on July 1st, 2008 at 6:37 pm

Haven’t you guys had posts about how some government agency or school had criminals in their midst? Now this school evicts the guy, and you complain?

I’d exchange letting this guy in, if they eliminate all race based admissions.

# 13 Rich said, on July 2nd, 2008 at 2:50 am

I would not trust a physician I knew had committed a crime. Good move.

# 14 George said, on July 2nd, 2008 at 5:01 am

Where is the story about the student who nearly didn’t get into medical school because his place was initially given to a convicted criminal?

I celebrate that unknown medical student whose grades were just as good and did not decide to commit crimes. He will be a better doctor than this piece of human garbage.

When you catch a burglar in your home, you shoot him. You don’t send him to medical school!

Why do you Liberals love criminals so much?

# 15 bobbo said, on July 2nd, 2008 at 5:16 am

#14–George==I spy only 1 post out of the previous 13 that support the kid so who are you referring to?

While I agree with the majority, at least I know the supposed liberal argument: You shows the greater desire and dedication to achieve in life? Someone who grew up in the ghetto with no social supports who manages the high testing scores, or the lazy affluent child of privilege who is tutored and coached all along the way to get only the same score?

And there is even a very practical answer==you are “practical” aren’t you George?? Is the medical profession to be staffed only of the cream of the crop type who want to get rich serving the cream of the crop types==or do the lower economic classes deserve some dedicated professionals who also are “of” them and relate to them?

White pricks of privilege are after all a minority in society.

# 16 ANNOYED said, on July 2nd, 2008 at 6:40 am

“When you catch a burglar in your home, you shoot him. You don’t send him to medical school!”

WTF! You have got to be kidding! This sort of approach is the reason the US has higher gun related deaths than any other non-warring nation (and even then… I vaguely remember Cheney saying a while back that Iraq was stable because the per capita death rate was similar to Detroit! I think that says more about Detroit than Iraq…)

Carry a gun to defend yourself from the other dude with a gun! The fact that if neither of you had one of the bloody things, this wouldn’t be a problem seems to have eluded a large portion of otherwise rational people.

George – are you Texan by any chance…? I believe that killing a man to defend a neighour’s property is legal there? Well, some of us never made it out of the stone-age and are a product of whatever limited education was dolled out in between the ironing of bedsheets and knotting of nooses… for that one has to forgive, I suppose.

# 17 ANNOYED said, on July 2nd, 2008 at 6:53 am

Oops – George annoyed so much I forgot to mention.. EVERYONE on this list did at least ONE thing between the ages of 10 and 17 that was either illegal or immoral – you just didn’t necessarily get caught and have someone reprimand you for it. The way young people learn the boundaries is by testing them. This guy may have gone further than some, burglary I have not done, but pilfer a bag of sweets? Yup! I just didn’t get caught. Luckily I, as this guy seems to have, learnt that this is not acceptable and moved on.

BTW – Did anyone notice that he was honest enough to bring his crime to the attention of the selection board? On that alone I would admit him! He has obviously learnt a lessonin honesty and courage and would potentially make a great doc and member of society.

# 18 pedro said, on July 2nd, 2008 at 10:28 am

#16 said: “…Carry a gun to defend yourself from the other dude with a gun! The fact that if neither of you had one of the bloody things, this wouldn’t be a problem seems to have eluded a large portion of otherwise rational people…”

So, making guns illegal will rid ourselves from murders. I thought you said it would be the other way around?

I’m with you here, if you leave guns legal, no one would need to use them nor want to kill others or themelves.

# 19 arbit said, on July 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 am

I think people are all missing a major point: is part of the punishment of being convicted of a crime never being treated fairly for the rest of your life? If so, what’s your motivation to be ‘good’?

If you punish a child for doing something wrong, you give him a chance to be trusted afterwards, don’t you? I’m not saying you don’t watch like crazy for repeat signs, but you do let them grow past it. If not …

I’d say this person has done everything possible to shown he’s trustworthy again, and you have to treat him appropriately. Otherwise, you’re saying you’ll NEVER forgive him, and that he might as well go back to a life of crime, since he’ll never be ‘one of us’.

# 20 advancedk said, on July 2nd, 2008 at 11:40 am

Should have gone to Oxbridge. . .

# 21 ANNOYED said, on July 4th, 2008 at 6:54 am

# 19 – You are absolutely right!

# 18 – “#16 said: “…Carry a gun to defend yourself from the other dude with a gun! The fact that if neither of you had one of the bloody things, this wouldn’t be a problem seems to have eluded a large portion of otherwise rational people…”

So, making guns illegal will rid ourselves from murders. I thought you said it would be the other way around?

I’m with you here, if you leave guns legal, no one would need to use them nor want to kill others or themelves.”

Umm… you seem to have managed to trip yourself up in your own thought process… scarcity of guns means less of them to go bang. That said the biggest issue is not the legality or otherwise of guns – Australia has alot of guns, owned by farmers mainly, but a low gun crime rate in comparison to the US… Why is this? It is to do with the attitude towards them – Australians do not have the “right to bear arms” bullcrap, nor is it legal to kill to defend property. They rely on their police force to do the defending for them, and that police force has an easier job than in the US, as the crims they are dealing with generally do not have firearms… hmmm… However, due to the slow infiltration of US ideas re self-defence, the gun related crime in OZ has gone up in recent years.

In Oz a gun is a tool, like a shovel or a tractor – handguns are ILLEGAL as their only purpose is to be hidden and who needs to hide a tool? Only a crim would need to hide a gun, so what need is there for handguns? Automatics are also illegal, how many kangaroos or wounded cattle do you need to kill all at once?

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